Warm the milk. Crumble the yeast into 3 oz warm milk, add a bit of confectioner’s sugar and let it rise for about 15 minutes. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl, add the yeast and the remaining warm milk, the sugar and the melted butter. Mix in the salt, lemon rind and knead, intensively, for 6-8 minutes until large air bubbles form. It is done when it does not stick to the side of the bowl anymore. Don’t worry if the dough is sticky at the beginning – keep kneading. Finally, add the egg yolks one by one. Brush the top with melted butter, cover with a clean cloth and let it rise in a warm place for about 50 minutes. Butter the inside of a large (8”x10”) baking dish. With a pin flatten the risen dough on a floured board until 1/2” high, then stamp 1 1/2” – 1 1/2” circles with a cookie cutter dipped in melted butter. Place one layer of the pieces – not too tightly – into the baking dish. Sprinkle with some melted butter, and half of the walnut and sugar (mix these two, if desired). Place a second layer of the dough on top, cover with the other half of the walnut and sugar and finally with the remaining dough to cover. Sprinkle the top with butter. Cover with a clean dish cloth and let it rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Bake in a pre-heated oven over medium heat (355 °F, 330 °F in air-convector ovens) for about 30 minutes. Turn it out onto a board while still hot. Break it into large pieces and arrange on plates. Serve the wine sauce on the side. (Substitute vanilla sauce if desired: see the Advice section for the recipe.) For the wine sauce, bring the wine with the spices to a boil. Mix the egg yolks and the sugar until white and frothy. Add the flour. Strain the wine over it, stirring constantly. Keep stirring and bring it to a boil again, until it thickens. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold in the wine sauce carefully. Best if served immediately so time it well.

Advice
– Prepare the vanilla sauce similarly to the wine sauce. Bring 2 cups of milk to a boil with the split
vanilla sticks, add the egg yolk-sugar-flour (and vanilla pudding) mixture, boil it again and fold in the beaten egg whites.
– When stamping the dough, you’ll be left with some small triangular leftover pieces. Place these towards the inside of the baking dish among the whole pieces to hide them.
– Be careful to dip the cookie cutter into butter after every piece to make sure they will separate from each other after baking.